CPPCC Daily: The communiqué of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to "promote the integrated reform of the system and mechanism of education, science and technology talents", what signals does this release in your opinion?
Zhou Hongyu: We are always in the process of deepening our understanding of the issues of education, science and technology, and talents. In the reports of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and earlier Party congresses, educational science and technology talents were discussed in different parts. By the first time that the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that the trinity of education, science and technology talents, and followed by "accelerating the construction of a new development pattern and focusing on promoting high-quality development", the Third Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee once again emphasized that education, science and technology, and talents are the basic and strategic support for Chinese-style modernization, which further highlighted the status and role of education, science and technology, and talent work.
Scientific and technological innovation depends on talents, and talent training depends on education. In 2017, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the goal of building a "strong country in education" for the first time; In October 2020, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed for the first time to "build a high-quality education system". In 2022, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized "accelerating the construction of an educational power" and "accelerating the construction of a high-quality education system". Therefore, the importance of education, science and technology, and talents, especially the importance of education, can be seen from the expression in the policy documents alone, and its status and role are becoming more and more important with the advancement of our goal of becoming a modern and powerful country, and the ideas of construction and development are becoming clearer.
In the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it was proposed that "educational scientific and technological talents are the basic and strategic support for building a modern socialist country in an all-round way". The communiqué of the Third Plenum of the CPC Central Committee stated that "educational science and technology talents are the basic and strategic support for Chinese-style modernization", and the core essence has not changed. The new adjustment is reflected in the word "reform" in the "overall promotion of the integrated reform of the system and mechanism of education, science and technology talents", I think, this is mainly based on the theme of the conference on comprehensively deepening the reform, and it also focuses more on the overall promotion of the trinity of education, science and technology talents.
CPPCC Daily: In your opinion, how to achieve the integrated reform of the system and mechanism of education, science and technology, and talents?
Zhou Hongyu: I noted that the meeting also pointed out that it is necessary to "improve the new national system and improve the overall efficiency of the national innovation system". In my opinion, this mainly involves the content and path of reform, and focuses on the question of how to reform.
As we all know, the national system of "concentrating forces to do great things" is a significant advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Compared with the past, the "new national system" is a unique system that concentrates all aspects of the country's human, material and financial resources, takes national development and national interests as the fundamental purpose, takes the main goal of overcoming a major project or completing an important task, and takes the realization of breakthrough development and leapfrog progress as the external manifestation of the unique system.
"Improving the new national system" is also aimed at "improving the overall efficiency of the national innovation system", which links the new national system with the overall promotion of the integrated reform of education, science and technology, and talent system and mechanism, and focuses on improving the overall efficiency of the national innovation system. The connotation of the "national innovation system" is rich and clear, mainly the technological innovation system, the knowledge innovation system, the national defense science and technology innovation system, the regional innovation system, the science and technology intermediary service system, and the governance innovation system.
In his report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "everything is interconnected and interdependent. Only by observing things from the viewpoint of universal connection, comprehensive and systematic, and development and change can we grasp the law of development of things. ”
To deal with the integrated reform of the system and mechanism of education, science and technology, we must first adhere to the system concept in terms of methodology, and use systematic thinking, strategic thinking and overall thinking. It is necessary to fully understand that the qualified personnel in education, science and technology, are objectively linked, and we cannot rigidly separate the three major fields and carry out separate reforms. Specific to the level of implementation, it is particularly necessary for relevant departments to work together, especially in the dimensions of top-level design and the construction of various policies and systems.
CPPCC Daily: In your opinion, what work needs special attention should be paid to deepening the comprehensive reform of education, deepening the reform of the scientific and technological system, and deepening the reform of the system and mechanism of talent development?
Zhou Hongyu: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, education in mainland China has undergone earth-shaking changes. However, there is still a certain distance in how to give priority to the development of education as an important first move in promoting the development of various undertakings of the party and the state. To deepen the comprehensive reform of education, it is necessary to focus on the development of quality education, implement the fundamental task of establishing morality and cultivating people, and improve the comprehensive training system of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor. Focus on the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, and promote the reform of colleges and universities by category. It is necessary to continue to promote the reform of "double reduction" and improve the governance mechanism of "double reduction". Complete mechanisms for school-family-social collaborative education, and improve the care system for migrant children, left-behind children, and children with disabilities. It is necessary to pay attention to optimizing the allocation of resources, make a forward-looking layout in response to the changes in the peaks and valleys of the school-age population, and establish a basic public education service supply mechanism that is coordinated with population changes. Improve mechanisms for promoting the quality and balance of compulsory education. It is necessary to improve the long-term mechanism for the construction of teachers' ethics and teaching style, improve the teacher education system with Chinese characteristics, and improve the guarantee and incentive mechanism for outstanding primary and secondary school principals and teachers to teach in rural schools and weak schools. It is necessary to vigorously promote the national education digitalization strategy, effectively use world-class educational resources and innovative elements, and promote the opening up of high-level education.
To implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, it is necessary to improve the system and mechanism of the party's unified leadership over scientific and technological work, improve the new national system, take key core technologies as a breakthrough and the main direction of attack, especially put the improvement of original innovation ability in a more prominent position, and adhere to the two-legged path of goal-orientation and free exploration; It is necessary to adhere to the world's frontier of science and technology, the main battlefield of the economy, the major needs of the country, and the life and health of the people; At the same time, special attention should be paid to cultivating a culture of innovation, promoting the spirit of scientists, and expanding international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation.
It is necessary to improve the strategic layout of talents and promote the construction of various talent teams as a whole. Implement a more active, open and effective talent policy, and improve the mechanism for independent training of talents. Accelerate the construction of national strategic talent forces, focus on cultivating strategic scientists, first-class scientific and technological leaders and innovation teams, and strive to cultivate outstanding engineers, craftsmen and high-skilled talents. Improve the talent incentive mechanism. In particular, on the issue of the evaluation and appointment of personnel in private enterprises and non-public institutions, such as teachers in private schools, it is necessary to truly treat them equally.
(Source: People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, Author: Zhu Yingjie, Zhou Hongyu is the former chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party)